1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a three-dimensional image display device and a method of manufacturing a three-dimensional image display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A flat panel display is generally used for a display panel of a three-dimensional image display device. Examples of the flat panel display include: a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel in which the light intensity is controlled using orientations of liquid crystals; a plasma display panel (PDP) in which phosphors are excited to emit light, by ultraviolet rays generated during plasma discharge; a field emission display (FED) panel in which phosphors are excited to emit light, by electron beams from field-emission electron emitters; and a surface-conduction electron emitter display (SED) panel in which phosphors are excited to emit light, by electron beams from surface-conduction electron emitters.
Various schemes are employed as a three-dimensional image display scheme, including a scheme using a multi-viewpoint imaging scheme and an integral imaging scheme. As a three-dimensional image display device employing any of the above schemes, a three-dimensional image display device including a lenticular lens has been developed. When the lenticular lens is used, a three-dimensional image can be observed without glasses for three-dimensional image observation.
In general, to dispose the lenticular lens on the display panel, a lens plate having the lenticular lens is attached to the display panel with an adhesion bond applied in a rectangular frame shape on the display panel. The positioning herein is performed using alignment marks on each of the display panel and the lens plate. These alignment marks are generally formed by machine work on each of the display panel and the lens plate. There have been proposed techniques of disposing the lenticular lens on a liquid crystal panel, in order to improve the light use efficiency (for example, see JP-B No. 3708112).
However, when the alignment marks formed by machine work are used, the position of the alignment marks may be less accurate due to poor working accuracy of forming the alignment marks on the display panel and the lens palate, or the like. Accordingly, it is difficult to confine the relative positions of the lenticular lens and the display panel in a plane direction within an allowable range (e.g., within a range of ±several μm from a target value) by performing the positioning based on the alignment marks formed by machine work. When the relative position is out of the allowable range, the center of a visual area is shifted, which adversely affects the visual area. Consequently, the display quality of a three-dimensional image is deteriorated.